Sympathy for the Ku Klux Klan, and Other Letters

This week’s mail has arrived

Posted:
Tuesday, December 31, 2013 5:00 pm

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children?

At Skate Station Funworks, we believe in providing safe, healthy, family fun while being respectful of all of our customers. As a family entertainment center, we do not use disrespectful and derogatory language to describe anyone, especially our customers. We believe the Dec. 18 issue of Folio Weekly was written in bad taste [Cover Story, “A New Year’s Eve Guide”]. While we are appreciative of the acknowledgment of our New Year’s Eve All-Night Skate, we are troubled by the terms used to describe children in our area. This article was not written by Skate Station, nor does it express the views or opinions of either Skate Station Orange Park or Skate Station Mandarin. We believe the article was not written with malicious intent; however, we sincerely hope that in the future Folio Weekly will be more considerate in their description of others.

— Kevin Schad, General Manager, Skate Station Orange Park

Ed. note: We advised parents to make “the little bastards someone else’s problem for the night.”

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Parents?

A well-written article and so true [Crime City, “The Power of the Project,” Dec. 25]. I was a police officer for 27 years, and part of that time was spent working in our public schools. Every time I had the chance to speak to parents, I told them there was no surefire preventive tool that would ensure their children never got in trouble with the law, never used drugs, never joined a gang. But I also told them that if they did several things, the likelihood their children would grow up to be productive adults would be greatly increased.

First, be involved in their lives — don't turn raising your children over to others (schools included). Next, set expectations and have rules for them to follow and have consequences for breaking those rules. Children need limits.

Know who their friends are! Try to know their friends’ parents, if you can, and decide if they are the kind of people you want your kids running with.

Get your kids involved in group activities supervised by adults — sports, music, church groups, etc. Kids who have no interests and nothing to occupy their time will often find trouble, by themselves or with others.

And lastly, make sure you kids know you love them — not by words alone and not by actions alone. Let them know you value them regardless of whether they achieve great things or not. And don't wait to start doing these things until they start getting into trouble. Usually, it's far too late at that point (late, but not worth changing and trying).

The biggest reason we have so many youth who get into trouble with drugs, gangs and the law is the abrogation of responsibility by parents.

— Terry Weaver

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the White People?

I'm certainly not saying [Nathan Bedford Forrest] was a great humanitarian [Cover Story, “The General, in Black and White,” Dec. 25]. But there are two sides to every story. After the Civil War, the slaves, rather than being happy at being slaves, went on a rampage, burning plantation homes and attacking and sometimes killing whites. (And often getting away with it.) Also, according to the book “Myths of Reconstruction,” thousands of white women were raped. (And again, many of the perpetrators were getting away with it.) Why do you think the KKK was founded to begin with? As just a social club? What you don't seem to realize is that Southern blacks hate Southern whites just as much as the whites hate them. Now, none of this erases Forrest's atrocities, especially of ordinary soldiers at Fort Pillow, who were killed for no reason other then being "uppity," but let’s be fair and examine both sides of the story for once.